--- title: "Spindle, Shuttle and Needle" story_id: "8eb37e8d-1a5b-4eb4-b00b-a81a5e80789b" text_id: "b71f1e13-cdb1-40e7-8d20-a45d08f6a8c0" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/spindle-shuttle-and-needle" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/spindle-shuttle-and-needle" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # Spindle, Shuttle and Needle > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/spindle-shuttle-and-needle) Version: Modernized In this German tale from the Brothers Grimm, an orphan lives alone and earns her living by making thread, weaving cloth and sewing. Her godmother left her a little house and three tools: a spindle, a shuttle and a needle. One day a prince passes her window. The three tools have a surprise in store… Once upon a time, there was a girl whose father and mother died while she was still a little child. Her godmother lived all alone in a small house at the end of the village. She supported herself by spinning, weaving and sewing. The old woman took the forlorn child to live with her, kept her busy at her work and taught her all that is good. When the girl was fifteen years old, the old woman became ill. She called the child to her bedside and said, “Dear daughter, I feel my end drawing near. I leave you the little house, which will protect you from wind and weather, and my spindle, a small rod for making thread, my shuttle for weaving, and my needle for sewing, with which you can earn your bread.” Then she laid her hands on the girl’s head, blessed her, and said, “Only preserve the love of God in your heart, and all will go well with you.” Then she closed her eyes. At her burial, the girl followed the coffin, weeping bitterly, and paid her last respects. Now the maiden lived quite alone in the little house. She worked hard, spinning, weaving and sewing, and the good old woman’s blessing was on all that she did. It seemed as if the flax in the room increased of its own accord. Whenever she wove a piece of cloth or carpet, or made a shirt, she at once found a buyer who paid her generously. So she lacked nothing and even had something to share with others. About this time, the son of the King was travelling about the country looking for a bride. He was not to choose a poor one, and did not want to have a rich one. So he said, “My wife shall be the girl who is the poorest and, at the same time, the richest.” When he came to the village where the maiden lived, he asked who was the richest girl and who was the poorest. He asked this wherever he went. They first named the richest; the poorest, they said, was the girl who lived in the small house quite at the end of the village. The rich girl sat in all her splendour before her door. When the prince approached, she got up, went to meet him and made him a low curtsey. He looked at her, said nothing, and rode on. When he came to the house of the poor girl, she was not standing at the door, but sitting in her little room. He stopped his horse and looked through the window, where the bright sun shone. He saw the girl at her spinning wheel, busily making thread. She looked up and saw the prince looking in. She blushed all over her face, lowered her eyes and went on spinning. I do not know whether, just at that moment, the thread was quite even; but she went on spinning until the King’s son had ridden away again. Then she went to the window, opened it, and said, “It is so warm in this room!” but she still watched him for as long as she could make out the white feathers in his hat. Then she sat down in her room and went on spinning. A saying the old woman had often repeated as she worked came into her mind, and she sang these words to herself: “Spindle, my spindle, hurry, hurry away, And here to my house bring the suitor, I pray.” And what do you think happened? The spindle sprang out of her hand in an instant and out of the door. Astonished, she got up and looked after it. She saw it dancing merrily into the open country, drawing a shining golden thread behind it. Before long, it had entirely vanished from her sight. As she had now no spindle, the girl picked up the weaver’s shuttle, a small tool for passing thread across a loom. She sat down at her loom, the frame used for weaving, and began to weave. The spindle kept dancing onwards. It reached the prince just as its thread ran out. “What do I see?” he cried; “the spindle certainly wants to show me the way!” He turned his horse around and rode back along the golden thread. Meanwhile, the girl sat at her work singing: “Shuttle, my shuttle, weave well this day, And guide the suitor to me, I pray.” Immediately the shuttle sprang out of her hand and out by the door. Before the threshold, however, it began to weave a carpet which was more beautiful than human eyes had ever seen. Lilies and roses blossomed on both sides. In the centre, green branches rose against a golden background, with hares and rabbits bounding beneath them. Stags and deer stretched their heads between the branches, while brightly-coloured birds sat above. They lacked nothing but the gift of song. The shuttle leapt here and there, and everything seemed to grow of its own accord. As the shuttle had run away, the girl sat down to sew. She held the needle in her hand and sang: “Needle, my needle, sharp-pointed and fine, Prepare for a suitor this house of mine.” Then the needle leapt out of her fingers and flew all around the room, as quick as lightning. It was just as if invisible spirits were working. In an instant, they covered tables and benches with green cloth, covered the chairs with velvet and hung silken curtains at the windows. The needle had barely put in the last stitch when the maiden saw through the window the white feathers of the prince, whom the spindle had brought there by the golden thread. He dismounted and stepped over the carpet into the house. When he entered the room, there stood the maiden in her poor garments. Yet she shone from within them like a rose surrounded by leaves. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/45feb27f-5f6e-45b8-8229-c74881660b80) “You are the poorest and also the richest,” said he to her. “Come with me, you will be my bride.” She did not speak, but she gave him her hand. Then he gave her a kiss, led her outside and lifted her onto his horse. He took her to the royal castle, where the wedding was celebrated with great rejoicing. The spindle, shuttle, and needle were preserved in the treasure chamber and held in great honour. ## Modernization notes - spindle, shuttle, and needle → spindle, a small rod for making thread, my shuttle for weaving, and my needle for sewing: A spindle is a small rod used to twist and wind thread. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Grimm’s Household Tales, volume II, 1884, George Bell and Sons, London - author: Jacob Grimm - author: Wilhelm Grimm - translator: Margaret Hunt ## Illustration [Arthur Rackham](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/45feb27f-5f6e-45b8-8229-c74881660b80) — Little Brother and Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, 1917, Constable & Co., London ## Reading music Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15 — At the Fireside Robert Schumann Chiara Bertoglio (piano) [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ## Quiz ### Which threads cross in weaving? - Warp and weft (Correct answer) - Root and leaf - Salt and sugar - Copper and iron Weft passes between warp threads. [Victoria and Albert Museum — What is tapestry?](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/what-is-tapestry) ### What keeps warp threads stretched? - A harp - A balance - A loom (Correct answer) - A mill A loom holds the warp during weaving. [Victoria and Albert Museum — What is tapestry?](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/what-is-tapestry) ### Which fibre was widely used for tapestries? - Metal - Wool (Correct answer) - Sand - Straw Wool is strong, flexible and easy to dye. [Victoria and Albert Museum — What is tapestry?](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/what-is-tapestry) ### What does a weaving shuttle carry? - Pearls - Seeds - Water - Weft yarn (Correct answer) It carries this yarn from side to side. [Smithsonian — Shuttle and bobbin](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_640517) ### What did the flying shuttle make possible? - Wider, faster weaving (Correct answer) - Growing flax - Dyeing without colour - Automatic sewing Its invention in 1733 sped up weaving. [Smithsonian — Shuttle and bobbin](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_640517) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/spindle-shuttle-and-needle?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)